


In Capslock

by shinguji



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Although it’s mostly just implied, Internalized Homophobia, Kaito’s sick but it’s not terminal anymore :), Mentions of religion (Christianity/Easter), Rated for slight language and mentions of death/terminal illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23620819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinguji/pseuds/shinguji
Summary: By the time this birthday hit, Kaito thought he would be dead.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	In Capslock

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate title: OP is bad at titles, summaries, and is in a rush to publish this because school has them stressed out despite the quarantine (hence why they haven’t been posting much... sorry)!
> 
> Kaito Momota means the absolute world to me, and I wish I had the time/patience/inspiration to come up with something better for him today, but this rambling mess is all that came to mind. I wanted to do something shippy and happy but, I hope the sweet-ish end is alright. Happy birthday, Luminary of the Stars. <3

This wasn’t something Kaito would have ever expected.

By the time this birthday hit, Kaito thought he would be dead. If he, by some miracle, wasn’t, he would still be caring for his grandparents back home, them caring for him in return—he never expected to live independently, and no one else expected him to, either. He would have a sweet, pretty, average fiancée to visit in his free time, maybe marry her and have a few kids someday. If his health allowed, he would have even already spent a year on the ISS and all of his dreams would have been exhausted. He would abandon his training and his studies because he didn’t need it anymore, because space had made his already weak body even weaker, because he had a family now. He could live the rest of his short life in early retirement, and if he was lucky, his family and maybe some fellow ISS crew members would come to his funeral. 

He never used to look forward to his birthday. It was one year closer to death, after all.

It had been just about three birthdays ago when the results came back—the timing was ironic; Kaito had assumed it might be his last, but the doctors promised he would have plenty more, that he didn’t have to die in his grandparents’ house jobless and dreamless, that he could still go to space someday, that he could hold off on finishing up his will for a few more decades, that his lungs fought back despite all the panic and diagnoses and resignation to the inevitability of his own death.

Kaito remembered how light everything felt after that, like he wasn’t afraid of anything anymore, not even of himself (and he had always been his own worst fear). He remembered getting off the phone with the doctors and crying, calling his grandparents and crying to them too, texting Shuichi and Maki and Kiyo and even goddamn Kokichi in capslock, finally talking about himself for once in his life.

Still, he still had things to overcome. He had to finish this training, he had to go to school, he had to care for his grandparents, but… what came after that didn’t feel so certain anymore. It was scary, but it was like he had been given new life.

Kaito finally felt strong enough to let himself be weak. 

Not to mention that his grandparents let him get away with not being the “man of the house” anymore—it may have only been because they pitied their grandson, of course, but Kaito liked to think that they just wanted him to have his own life, now that he had a chance at one. 

He could hug his friends and cry on their shoulders. He could get his ears pierced and finally wear those earrings Rantaro got him in America. He could focus on his friendships and procrastinate on homework to go mini-golfing or something stupid like that. He could talk Gonta’s ear off about flowers and water bears in space—those were kind of like bugs, right? He could take Tsumugi up on her offer to do his makeup because he “would look really good with some blush.”

He could do whatever the hell he wanted with his future, even if he wasn’t sure what that was.

This birthday was like any other birthday had been for the past few years—it was on Easter this year, of course, but no one really celebrated except for Kiyo, who just used it as an excuse to give lectures on the origins of Christianity.

Kaito ate breakfast with his classmates (although Kirumi insisted on making it special despite Kaito’s refusal), got roped into a screamfest between Miu and Kokichi regarding which of their classmates would make the best housewife, and spent most of the morning and afternoon in Shuichi’s room, playing Minecraft and watching god awful reality TV shows.

Kirumi baked a cake (despite Kaito’s refusal, again), Kokichi flooded an entire classroom with balloons (many of which had crude things drawn/written on them in neon Sharpie), and Keebo was somehow forced into becoming a humanoid disco ball (although Kaito had to ask him to turn the brightness down).

Predictably, he got a lot of plants and random space-themed stuff, but he also got a weird anime wig, an (admittedly pretty but still sort of gross) pinned butterfly, an obscure video game about farming, for some reason, and a cake to the face (courtesy of Kokichi).

It wasn’t the most extravagant birthday, Kaito thought as he watched the stars with his classmates, but at least he enjoyed it. At least he lived to see it.

And, for now, that was all he needed.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t even proofread this; I just felt the need to publish something, anything for his birthday because he deserves it! >:3 Anyway, I hope it was alright. Feedback is always welcome (as long as y’all don’t start bashing my HCs for no reason again)!


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